Yechimovich: Stop Airing Racist Comments About Hareidim

Labor Party Chairwoman MK Shelly Yechimovich criticizes the media over its ongoing incitement against hareidi-religious Jews.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 12/29/2011, 6:13 AM

MK Shelly Yachimovich

Flash 90

Labor Party Chairwoman MK Shelly Yechimovich criticized the Israeli media on Wednesday over its ongoing incitement against the hareidi-religious Jews. Her comments came in the wake of the recent overhyped media reports about the gender segregation among hareidim.

Yechimovich expressed her resentment over the fact that media does not screen racist comments.

“During the reports about last night’s demonstration in Beit Shemesh, there was a clip of one protester saying ‘the hareidim breed like cockroaches,’ she said. “I worked for many years in the media and these kinds of sayings need to be removed during editing. They are not at all appropriate for airing.”

“I express deep reservations about these things which are nothing but racist incitement, and certainly in Israel where Jews gathered after the Holocaust, it is unacceptable that such a statement would be uttered by an Israeli citizen about any part of the population in Israel,” Yechimovich added.

She said that Israelis should in no way get used to making racist comments in general and against hareidim in particular.

“Just as I speak my mind regarding the exclusion of women and speak out against this phenomenon, I am outraged about such racist expressions,” Yechimovich said.

She called on the media to edit out racist comments against hareidim just as it would on any other topic being aired.